Large earthmoving and industrial tires have traditionally been mounted on a multi-piece wheel. The rims of such wheels commonly have a removable bead seat and flange retained on a rim base by a split ring seated in a groove in the rim base. One of the problems frequently encountered therewith is that of sealing between the removable bead seat and the rim base for retaining air within the mounted tire.
There have been some recent endeavors to utilize the automotive type drop center wheel design for heavy-duty industrial tire use. Since the rims of automotive size wheels are relatively thin, they are easily made from one piece by spin forming. However, the massive size of the wheels and thickness of the material used for making the rims of earthmoving and industrial vehicles created problems in trying to use the same technology and construction for building such wheels. To make a drop center wheel of such size it became necessary to fabricate the wheel rims from two or more pieces which were welded together. A mounting flange was then welded to the fabricated wheel rim for use in mounting the wheel to a vehicle.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.